Earlier in March 2022 the UNESCO released their official Recommendations of Best Practices for Open Science, an initiative started after the 40th session of the UNESCO’s General Conference (2019) in which 193 member states stated their support to develop such recommendations.
The Recommendations, among other aspects, identify seven priority areas of action summarized as follows:
- Promotion of benefits and challenges of open science, and an emphasis on acknowledging the diversity of paths to open science.
- Development of a policy environment for open science
- Investments into open science infrastructure and services
- Investments into human resources, training, education, as well as digital literary as well as capacity building for open science
- Fostering a culture of open science by aligning incentives for open science
- Promotion of innivative approches to open science at different stages in the scientifc process
- Promotion of international and multi-stakeholder cooperation in teh context of open science with a view to reducing gaps in digital and technological knowledge.
These final recommendations where supported by a number of additional steps one being a preliminary study of the desirability of a UNESCO recommendation as well as a time for comments by UN member states and puclic hearings in May 2021.